How the Confrontation Between a Family and Riders Unfolded in Manhattan

The motorcyclists came together gradually last Sunday morning, their ranks growing into the hundreds as they moved through Brooklyn and Queens, alerted by friends, social media posts and text messages to join an annual ride.

Raw video shows a throng of motorcyclists chasing an SUV up New York City's West Side highway. The SUV later pulled onto a side street, and motorcyclists attacked the driver of the vehicle. Video: YouTube

About the same time, financial district resident Alexian Lien, a 33-year-old vice president at Credit Suisse, and his wife, Rosalyn Ng, placed their young daughter into her car seat in a black Range Rover. They headed north on a trip to celebrate their two-year wedding anniversary.

The bikers and the family clashed on the Henry Hudson Parkway on Manhattan's west side, in a confrontation seen around the world in a video taken by one of the bikers wearing a helmet camera. Mr. Lien's wife said her family feared for their lives. Some bikers present said they converged on Mr. Lien's SUV as a defensive maneuver because they say he was weaving from side to side.

Police and prosecutors are still sorting out exactly what happened next and who is to blame. But some things are clear: Mr. Lien was beaten, one biker may be paralyzed, and some bikers will likely wind their way through the legal system, police said.

For the riders, it began after they learned about Hollywood's Block Party 2013, the informal title of Sunday's run. It was organized by Ozone Park's Jamie "Hollywood" Lao, according to people close to him, one of whom estimated that about 100 riders gathered outside Mr. Lao's house Sunday before setting out. Bikers say the event was celebratory, and not a horde turning dangerous tricks described by New York Police Department Commissioner Ray Kelly.

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"We know that the things we do aren't right as far as maybe running a red light or a stop sign or something like that, but we try to do so in the safest manner possible," said Justin Rios, who was riding in a cluster of bikers just ahead of the melee on the highway.

Still, police were ready. Hollywood's Block Party's organizers didn't obtain a permit and the rides get larger every year and more rambunctious, with bikers trying to enter Manhattan from around the city, police said. Police investigators had been gathering information on the ride for several days, spokesman John McCarthy said, including on Twitter and Facebook, the same venues on which bikers traded word of the impending event with the hashtag #hbp2013.

Mr. Kelly said that officers had been deployed to keep bikers out of the city's center, especially Times Square, to prevent a replay of 2012, when the Hollywood's Block Party riders largely shut the area down. Videos of the 2012 event posted on the web show bikers riding on sidewalks, popping wheelies, and harassing pedestrians, police said.

Police arrived at biker meetup locations and inspected licenses and registrations and looked for illegal alterations. They set up checkpoints throughout the city, targeting bridges and tunnels, Mr. McCarthy said. Throughout the city, police seized 55 motorcycles, issued 68 summonses, and made 15 arrests.

Mr. Rios hopped on his bike Sunday morning in Williamsburg, met up with friends, and began riding east on the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway. The destinations were gas stations, a McDonald's, and places where bikers joined with others from around the region. Most people were strangers, Mr. Rios said.

There were more than 400 bikes, Mr. Rios estimated, when the group reached a stretch of Linden Boulevard in Queens, near a meetup point with Mr. Lao and others. They then headed back along the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, he said.

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The SUV involved in the incident on the Henry Hudson Parkway.
Eduardo Munoz/Reuters

Earlier

Mr. Lao broke off from the group, some bikers said, and another top member of the ride led the way. Mr. Lao didn't respond to requests for comment.

The bikers approached the Brooklyn Bridge, and police were waiting. "The beginning of the pack kind of sped through the checkpoint and we kind of overwhelmed the cops," Mr. Rios said.

Once they crossed the bridge, a group of bikers headed west, up 12th Avenue toward the West Side Highway and Henry Hudson Parkway, Mr. Rios said. Motorcyclists "took over" the road, Mr. Rios said, to prevent car drivers from colliding with bikers.

It was there that Mr. Lien encountered the bikers. He tried to call 911 to report they were driving erratically, but the call didn't go through, officials said.

The riders closed in on Mr. Lien's vehicle, a common formation that one biker who spoke to witnesses and gave her nickname, Chukii, described as a means of isolating and stopping motorists they feel are driving dangerously in order for the rest of the pack to pass. "We get hit all the time and then people take off," said Chukii, who organized an event for an injured biker.

Police say they believe the bikers planned to slow down and block traffic to get open terrain to race and perform stunts—which police say is a common occurrence during mass rides.

Around 125th Street, Christopher Cruz, a 28-year-old from Passaic, N.J. whose New Jersey driver's license has been suspended four times, records show, pulled in front of Mr. Lien's vehicle. The video shows him looking back at the SUV's front bumper and slowing down in an apparent attempt to bring the car to a stop. He was charged with unlawful imprisonment, and at a later Manhattan court hearing, a judge said Mr. Cruz posed a "risk to human life based on the conditions of his driving."

H. Benjamin Perez, a lawyer for Mr. Cruz, said his client did "nothing that was criminal."

Mr. Lien's car hit Mr. Cruz's bike, bringing the highway procession to a halt. Bikers swarmed around the Range Rover, and one biker exchanged angry words with Mr. Lien, a witness said. A side view mirror was smashed, someone hit the vehicle, and the tires may have been slashed, police said.

"We were placed in grave danger by a mob of reckless and violent motorcyclists," Ms. Ng said in a statement issued by her lawyers. "We were faced with a life-threatening situation."

The video shows that Mr. Lien accelerated, allegedly striking three people and rolling over one motorcycle with his Range Rover's front right tire before heading up the highway. Biker Giancarolo Cardenas, a 32-year-old from Paterson, N.J, was hit and suffered a leg injury, officials said. And biker Edwin Mieses, a 32-year-old sound engineer from Lawrence, Mass.—who doesn't have a driver's license in his home state, but has been issued violations for driving, records show—was struck. His spine and ribs were cracked and he may be paralyzed, his wife said in interviews outside St. Luke-Roosevelt Hospital.

The bikers chased Mr. Lien's car. Police received their first 911 call from Ms. Ng at 1:52 p.m. near 165th Street, Mr. McCarthy said, where Mr. Lien was again stopped on the road. The video shows a biker in a white helmet—allegedly Robert Sims, 35, who turned himself in to officials on Friday, police said—rush up to the Range Rover and pull open the driver's side door. Mr. Lien accelerated away, swinging the door closed.

Soon after, 911 dispatchers received another call from Ms. Ng, then another, at 1:55 p.m., saying the SUV was stopped at 178th St. near Wadsworth Avenue in Washington Heights. The tires had gone flat.

The attack on the couple's car began, police said. About 30 bikers were present, a witness said. In the video, one biker is seen taking off his chrome-colored helmet and repeatedly smashing the SUV's driver's side window, shattering it.

Mr. Lien was pulled from the car and beaten. Both of his eyes were blackened and he needed stitches on his face and left side, police said.

"Next thing I know, he was on the floor taking a couple shots to the face," said a rider who witnessed it. "I was scared. I was kind of shocked that it had happened," he said. A bystander tried to break it up, he said.

Ms. Ng called 911 a final time at 2 p.m. from 178th St. and St. Nicholas Ave. The bikers were gone. Police arrived while she was talking to a dispatcher. An ambulance arrived two minutes later, Mr. McCarthy said.

Ms. Ng, in the statement, said the beating of her husband proved how accurate their fears for their safety had been. "We know in our hearts that we could not have done anything differently," Ms. Ng said. "And we believe that anyone faced with this sort of grave danger would have taken the same course of action in order to protect their family."

Investigators are still trying to put all the pieces together. Police arrested Allen Edwards, seen in the video hitting the side of the SUV with his arm shortly before Mr. Lien was attacked. But the Manhattan District Attorney's Office declined to prosecute him, because he said he intended to help, not hurt, the driver. Mr. Edwards couldn't be reached for comment.

A lawyer representing Mr. Lien and Ms. Ng declined to comment. Detectives so far identified and talked to "a few of the dozens and dozens" of motorcyclists who were either involved or may have witnessed the incident, a law-enforcement official said, adding, "We don't know 80% of what happened yet."

Any father here would have done whatever possible to protect his wife and child if he was surrounded by a GANG who were moving in on him. All he wanted to do was get out of there which is what he tried to do. The Bikers were the aggressors, were out looking for trouble, and they could have prevented the whole thing. They are just lucky that Mr. Llen didn't really use that vehicle as a weapon like I would have.

Of course if they would have tried to pull a stunt like that down here, the outcome would have been vastly different. First off, the police would have shown up in force and a lot faster since we don't let GANGS run wild around here. If the police weren't there yet, several of those GANG members would have gotten their heads blown off by the driver, and the rest would have gotten their heads blown off by other drivers who would not have just sat idly by while a man and his family were being attacked by a bunch of thugs.

How come all these bikers are under the microscope but not the driver of the SUV? Certainly, he played a huge part in what happened. Was driver Alexian Liu an experienced New York City driver? Bet he wasn't! Our roadways here are not for the faint of art, and from the looks of the video Mr. LIen was one nervous navigator. He drove erratically and pulled a hit and run, and yet he wasn't arrested.

Everybody's pointing fingers at the bikers, but they didn't paralyze anyone for life, but Mr. Lien did.

This sad situation is the reductio ad absurdum of the gun carry advocates." If only the SUV driver and his wife had guns" they lament, " it would have stopped these thugs dead in their tracks" Except for the fact that most of the thugs probably were gun carry advocates themselves resulting in the bullet ridden death of the couple and their child and maybe the death or wounding of several of the bikers. A Hobbesian bellum omnium contra omens, a war of all against all is the logical result of liberal gun laws. With the resulting arms race of weapons to semi automatic , automatics, eventually 50 cal machine-guns mounted on the top of SUVs. Truly a bizarro land we have created from the founders notion of "a well regulated militia".

Reminds me of the Lee Mavin/Marlon Brando movie form the 50's where they all road English made motorcycles...way back when sterling was an important currency and England made things. What was the name of the movie ?

When danger existed the police weren't around for minutes or hours. If the victim would have had a firearm this would likely not have happened.

OK Gov. Cuomo, are you taking care of the innocent victim of biker mob violence with state funds after you failed to provide for his safety? Will the State of New York pay for the victims car? Will the victim go on state disability? Or are you Mr. Cuomo sympathetic with the bikers?

I wonder if Mr. Lien forgot to tell the police about the two other motorcycles he hit in separate incidents miles before the video began? Its never good to have to change your story to the police, or add important facts that you left out, once you are confronted with the evidence. Unexplained paint marks and dents on your own vehicle, and matching paint marks and scrapes on the bikes that were hit, miles up the road before the video starts.

""We know that the things we do aren't right as far as maybe running a red light or a stop sign or something like that, but we try to do so in the safest manner possible,"" What unmitigated horsehooey.

I've watched all the video of this ride I could find. In one 24 minute long video I counted enough violations to make a traffic cops head spin. High speed lane splitting. Wheelies. ATV's and dirt bike on highways. Forcing traffic to stop.

I see a lot of gray in this entire situation. There will be a trial where hopefully the truth comes out. People were seriously injured and lawyers will make lots of money. Some lawyers may even get some fame from all of this. Maybe some justice will come out of it.

If one or more bikers slows down in front of your car you have determine why they did that? It does not appear to be a traffic jam or that one of the biker had a flat, ran out of gas or had a tire with a slow leak. So what were their intentions? Probably not good even if it is not illegal to drive slowly in front of a car or to stop for no reason. They are banking on a driver obeying the law to not run them over when they slow down.

When someone runs over a biker and leaves the scene, that is not good nor legal. Why did they do that? Did they feared for their life? Probably but was that their only option? I can't say what a reasonable person would do in that situation because what was happening does not seem like a reasonable situation to be be involved in.

This just looks like a big mess to me and there will be a lot of he said / she said. No wins except lawyers who make all the money trying to spin the truth. Every situation has 3 sides. Their side. Your side. And the truth. I hope we get to the truth.

The toll plaza at the Henry Hudson Bridge is unmanned; they computerized it more than a year ago. Since then it has been a convenient place for the motorcycle gangs to start and end their races. There is never a cop car there, ever. If you call the precinct they say they're too busy to send one.

The motorcycle gangs have been terrorizing Northern Manhattan for years. Every night from April to October, 5pm to 5am (except when it rains), they drag-race up and down the Henry Hudson Parkway, Broadway and the Harlem River Driver at 80mph. They strip the mufflers off their bikes; I have often measured 100 Decibels in my bedroom at 2am when a gang rode by under my window -- the same noise level as when a jet takes off. If you call the precinct, the cops laugh and tell you to move. If you call 311 they refuse to accept the complaint because the motorcycles are in motion (i.e. you can't provide an exact address). Adults to go work vomiting from sleep deprivation, infants wake up shrieking with terror, school kids fall asleep in class. Of course, if this happened even one night in a rich Zip code, say 10021 or 10024, it would be stopped immediately. But uptown where the poor brown people live, nobody cares. In fact the cops belong to the gangs. Thank you s***head Bloomberg, and thank you s***bag NYPD.

I support concealed carry, but I would have strongly adivsed Mr. Lien against brandishing a gun against a mob. How many could you shoot before your own family is dead? The idea is to keep your family safe, not go down in a blaze of 2nd amendment glory.

Lien was following too closely - unsafe driving. Regardless of whether the police believe he was "imprisoned" while diriving on the highway, he has an obligation to follow at a safe distance to react to what is ahead of him.

Micheal - how can police be expected to take control of a fast moving, short event such as this ? Why would a firearm have helped in this situation, except in a movie scenario ? What does Gov Cuomo have to do with this anyway ? These rants don't help the situation.

Ah. barf. Why does everyone engage in these wank fantasies where only the heroic SUV driver has a gun and takes out bikes while driving at 75mph. Just like the movies.

There were guns in the crowd, on the motorcycle-riding NYPD cops, only 2 of whom were undercover. There were also NYC correctional officers present (NY's Boldest). I don't know if they're allowed to carry or not. None of whom, apparently, lifted a finger to help Mr. Lien and his family.

I'm pro-gun, but in this case the argument fails. If Lien were allowed to be armed, then so would the bikers. The bikers had the numbers, and if Lien had shot at them, Lien and his family would likely be dead.

Peasants are never armed unless there is a revolution going on. Then a dictatorship soon emerges, and people can't have arms again. Citizens can have arms in democratic countries with an educated population. The U.S. doesn't have peasants.

Having a gun with you doesn't mean that you have to use it the first sign of trouble. The driver already had an advantage in that the bikers couldn't do anything while he was moving. He should have stayed on the highway, slowed down, and waited for the police to catch up.

Those who are against concealed carry are using the outcome of this situation to argue that having a gun would be pointless because the criminals would shoot back. The problem with this argument is that most criminals are cowards, and run away at the first sign of effective resistance. It is possible that the bikers could have pulled out their guns and shot the suv full of holes, but that would be murder. If they were intent on murdering the driver, they would likely have beaten him to death anyway.

In the end it's a matter of preference. If you find yourself in a situation where a reasonable person would believe that others intend to significantly harm or kill you, then you have two choices. You can submit to the criminals and beg for mercy, or you can fight back. I would fight back, and one situation that may have worked out better because the victim didn't fight back is not going to change my mind. There are many people murdered every year that would still be with us if they had had a gun and fought back.

Under ordinary driving rules, perhaps. But if a driver senses bikers to the left and right of him and an angry mob of bikers in his rearview mirror, it doesn't take a genius to assess their intent. The driver's strategy may have been better if he were to have slammed on his brakes and knocked over a few of his pursuers, and the he may have had room to outmaneuver the ones in front, without running over them. But the law doesn't require drivers to be 007 agents just yet.

" how can police be expected to take control of a fast moving, short event such as this ?"

Don't the NYPD cars have radios? Doesn't the NYPD work on Sunday afternoons? Were all of NYPD's patrol cars in a garage under lock and key in Brooklyn? Or Hoboken? Are the NYPD officers armed? Don't NY's video cams work, or, wasn't anyone watching them?

So many questions. What if the driver of the SUV had been black? Then what?

Good for you James. At least you are open to learning more about the event, which is more than can be said for the general public or the media. The fact that the video begins with the SUV and the chasing cyclists having an open road in front of them should lead one to suspect that something happened before the video starts which kept the rest of the traffic slowed and behind the SUV and the bikers.

If there were earlier hits against cyclists, there should be paint and scrape marks on the SUV. A few kicks and punches won't erase those marks. Other bikers hit probably don't want to come forward for obvious reasons. Who would want to come public with the fact that they were participating in the rally or the chase?

As children we said the pledge of allegiance in school, which ends with the words "with liberty and justice for all." That doesn't seem to apply for the biker in this case. What would Sadam Husain what done in this case if a relative of his had driven the SUV? He would have ordered all of these bikers killed and their family members to boot. Americans shouldn't tilt in that direction.

Your comment speaks to the need for ordinary citizens to be able to protect themselves. There was a time when people who joined the police wanted to serve and protect their community. Now, its an opportunity for employement. Though there are many officers who still fit the latter category, there are more than a few of the former. Which kind of officer is responding to your 911 call?

That'd be easier if the bikers had some reason to fear the neighbors. Unfortunately, legally disarmed and with an indifferent police force, i'm not sure there is anything to be done that doesnt break the law. Moreover, I wouldn't be confident that the prosecutor wouldn't come after me if i did something that might infringe on the criminals' rights.

this is to ginger, belowYou would be hard pressed to convince me that an armed society is more polite. maybe more cautious and paranoid, but not more polite. if it were, we;d see alot more politeness in south central LA, or south side of Chicago.

Jeffrey, the article indicates that many of the bikers admit to wantonly breaking the law. That indifference to the law means that in this situation, the only people who could be armed are those who decided to assault an innocent couple and their infant child.

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